MEDIA ADVISORY: What are the Ethical and Legal Issues Generated by the BRAIN Initiative?

Posted in News Release

WASHINGTON (April 8, 2015) — The Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative launched by the Obama Administration gives rise to three critical bioethical issues: the capacity for consent, questions of cognitive enhancement and the use — and misuse — of neuroscience in the legal system. These issues were highlighted in a recent report from the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues titled Gray Matters: Topics at the Intersection of Neuroscience, Ethics, and Society. (new window)

Contributing author to the report, Stephen L. Hauser, MD, joins the half-day symposium to help address these issues at Georgetown University Medical Center on April 27.

WHAT
Minding Gray Matters: Neuroethics, the BRAIN Initiative and Beyond…hosted by the Neuroethics Studies Program of the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University Medical Center.

WHEN
Monday, April 27, 2015; 12:30 to 5p ET

WHERE
Georgetown University Medical Center
New Research Building Auditorium
4000 Reservoir Rd., NW
Washington, DC 20057

WHO
Welcoming Address: Howard Federoff, MD, PhD; Executive Vice President for Health Sciences, and Executive Dean, School of Medicine, Georgetown University Medical Center

Moderator: James Giordano, PhD, MPhil; Chief, Neuroethics Studies Program, Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics, and Professor of Neurology, Georgetown University Medical Center; Co-director, O’Neill Institute-Pellegrino Center Program in Brain Science and Global Health Law and Policy

Stephen L. Hauser, MD; Chair, Neurology Department, University of California, San Francisco; member, Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues; co-author of Gray Matters

Misti Ault Anderson, MS, MA; Research Analyst, Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues

William D. Casebeer, PhD; Research Area Manager, Human Systems Optimization,

Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories

Kevin FitzGerald, PhD, SJ; Dr. David P. Lauler Chair for Catholic Health Care Ethics at Georgetown University Medical Center

Michelle Groman, JD; Associate Director, Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues

Katherine Shats, LLB, LLM; Associate, O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law; Coordinator, O’Neill Institute-Pellegrino Center Program in Brain Science and Global Health Law and Policy

John Shook, PhD; Lecturer in Philosophy, Bowie State University, Maryland; and Research Associate in Philosophy, University of Buffalo, NY.

Nicolle K. Strand, JD, M.Bioethics; Research Analyst, Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues

John VanMeter, PhD; Professor of Neuroscience, and Director, Center for Functional and Molecular Imaging, Georgetown University Medical Center

Media RSVP: Karen Teber, km463@georgetown.edu

About Georgetown University Medical Center
Georgetown University Medical Center is an internationally recognized academic medical center with a three-part mission of research, teaching and patient care (through MedStar Health). GUMC’s mission is carried out with a strong emphasis on public service and a dedication to the Catholic, Jesuit principle of cura personalis — or “care of the whole person.” The Medical Center includes the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing & Health Studies, both nationally ranked; Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute; and the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization (BGRO), which accounts for the majority of externally funded research at GUMC including a Clinical Translation and Science Award from the National Institutes of Health.